Three-quarters of ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria have been killed in US-led airstrikes

By
Mike Denison

0

0

December 14, 2016 11:45 AM EST

The number of battle-ready fighters inside Iraq and Syria is now at its lowest point that it's ever been.

Brett McGurk, US anti-ISIS envoy

At least three-quarters of ISIS fighters have been killed in U.S.-led airstrikes on targets in Iraq and Syria, officials said Wednesday.

The terror group is down to between 12,000 and 15,000 "battle-ready" fighters. CNN reports 50,000 were killed since 2014.

By the numbers

17,000 airstrikes have been carried out against ISIS targets

All but 4,500 attacks were carried out by American military forces

When President Obama hands the mission to President-elect Donald Trump on Jan 20, 2017, it will only be the second U.S. transition of power during wartime in 40 years.

Iraqi army soldiers advance through rain towards Mosul, in the eastern Samah neighborhood, of Mosul, Iraq, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2016. Iraqi forces met stiff resistance in Mosul, including waves of suicide car bombs, since launching an offensive to retake the city in October. They have retaken less than a quarter of the city since the operation began. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

The United States and others in the anti-ISIS coalition are currently waging an offensive to retake Mosul, Iraq. Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy to the anti-ISIS effort, would not estimate how long that campaign might take.

Humanitarian crisis in Aleppo

This comes on the heels of a humanitarian crisis in Aleppo, Syria. The Syrian government has retaken the city after a long, bloody struggle, but a cease-fire intended to allow citizens to evacuate fell through.

CNN reports the city is still being slammed with as many as two artillery shells per minute.

The way this deal was dangled ... and then snatched away just half a day later is also outrageously cruel.

Zeid Raad al-Hussein

On Wednesday, the United Nations' commissioner for human rights, Zeid Raad al-Hussein, said the Syrian government may have committed a war crime by bombing Aleppo with civilians still inside.